Future Trends in Health Care

Future Trends in Health Care Over the years many things have contrubuted to the advancement of the electronic age in the health care system. In the beginning, the primary function of the information system in the healthcare setting was administrative tasks, such as billling. That has changed over the years. According to Blackwell (2008) “As IT developed, systems were marketed for the specialist medical departments and niche markets developed, for example, for laboratories, pharmacies, diagnostics, imaging and intensive care.” Although email, telemedicine, and electronic transfer of records have impacted healthcare today, understanding how they can impact health care 5 years from now can be equally as important. This paper will evaluate how the internet can be used as an external delivery source in communicating patient information, as well as the impact of distance delivery has on healthcare. The internet or any new form of electronic communication can be used as an external delivery source in communicating patient-specific information. According to Dezelico & Stampar (2007) “The development of information and communication technologies during the last 2 decades of the 20th century was paticularly important for medical informatics, with Internet and its profound influence on the everyday medical work. It is emphasized that Internet caused a new information revloution since medical information became available to the public and ceased to be in exclusive control of health professionals” (p. 43). Many things changed in healthcare in the 1990’s. One of the new forms of electronic communication that was developed was the computer-based patient record systems introduced by vendors. These were types of health care information structures known as electronic medical records. An electronic health record (EHR) (also electronic patient record (EPR) or computerized patient record) is a systematic collection of electronic health information about